The Kremlin on Tuesday praised what it called Washington’s “balanced position” on the war in Ukraine after the United States aligned twice with Russia in UN votes marking the full-scale invasion’s third anniversary.
In a major policy shift, the U.S. opposed a European-backed resolution at the UN General Assembly on Monday that strongly criticized Russia over the war and reaffirmed Ukraine’s territorial integrity.
That measure received 93 votes in favor, 18 against — including from the U.S., Russia, Belarus, North Korea and Sudan — and 65 abstentions.
“The U.S. is taking a much more balanced position, which is really helping efforts aimed at resolving the conflict over Ukraine,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Tuesday.
“We certainly welcome this. We believe that such a balanced position indicates a real desire to contribute to a settlement,” he added.
The U.S. had originally drafted a resolution amid growing tensions between President Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
However, after Ukraine’s European allies pushed to amend the text to explicitly state that Russia had carried out a “full-scale invasion of Ukraine,” the U.S. ultimately abstained from voting on its own resolution.
However, the U.S. later submitted its original, unaltered text to the UN Security Council, where it passed with 10 votes in favor and five abstentions from France, Britain, Denmark, Greece and Slovenia.
Peskov on Tuesday contrasted Washington’s stance with that of the EU, which he said “does not signal balance yet.”
“But perhaps, following the Europeans’ contacts with the Americans, Europe will gravitate toward greater balance,” he said.
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